BREAKING THE BARRIERS OF INTOLERANCE BY NIKOLA FALLER.

Nikola demonstrate the twists and turns of working with hay and other natural materials

Celebrating friendship and tolerance

You can tell by the kids' faces how surprised they were about all the things you can do with hay

One of our volunteers preparing the long branches of nut trees for hay wrapping

Our little Mateo and Nina, so patient and definitely loving the process

Let me see what else I've got in my basket of tricks

I will show you my heart

Isn't this cool? they made giant necklaces with their hearts of hay

First we're just warming them up and teaching them the technique. Now, we are getting them on to the real task at hand

The next step brings them in groups of two. Here's the super Nikolina and Anamarja's team

Super Marko and Mateo team

Loving Marko and Ivano

Goran giving it a trim with the scissors. Shears poetry

Nikolina and Anamarinja were on it the entire time

And Mr. Predrag "Dusty" Mraović, the visionary of Gvozd.

The kids gather around Alexandra Rangel from Artoconecto final photos together. Sniff.

Hey hey hey, don't forget we gotta finish this

Making a bedding for the final performance

"This is a barrier of intolerance, and you are trapped by it. We are all pushing this barrier aside and break away from it"...

Push hard

And rejoice in love."

I am very grateful and honored to have been able to share such a tremendous experience with the wonderful people at Suncokret--Maja, Predrag, thank you very much. You guys are doing an amazing job, and I was happy to share it with everyone. Our missions continue.

Also, meeting all the artists after long months of coordinating the project, experiencing their enthusiasm while witnessing their talents made me feel extremely lucky to be there. The kids, I love all of you, and I will always cherish this experience for the rest of my life. Thank you for opening your little hearts to me.

Keep up with the good work says Alex.

Alexandra Rangel

Executive Director and Founder

Artoconecto

We All Have a Different Approach by Lila Herceg

Lila demonstrates

The workshop lasted three hours. The kids were chatting away the whole time. Such a great group of kids.

Stephan and Ivan

Those are Ivan little hands. I am very impressed by his English is so good.

Ružica is using glue and skewers to make her trees

This is Mateo's second tree during the camp. He got a minimalist style

Goran using cardboard and a deep plum color.

Our dear Pedrag without him and Maja, Suncokret will not exist for these kids.

Ružica, Stephan, Nikolina, Mateo, Anamarija, Ivan, Matea, Danny and Marko holding their works. They just love to make art. They really do. So proud.

Sharing An Artistic Universe by Stipo Zoroja

Areal view of the kids. They were so focused.

Stipo shows the kids the freedom to work with any tools they want, including their own hands.

Stefan wants to become an artist

Tony

Hands-on work

Mateo goofing around as usual

Goran and Tony

We set up different working stations all over Suncokret's grounds

Quietly working

Ivan shows Stipo his progress

Tolerance with Our Surroundings By Aleksandra Podrebarac

Surrounded by apple trees, the exercise started with the kids drawing an outline of their hands on a sheet of paper. The sheet was passed around the table, where each kid drew over each other's outlines. The artist then provided the kids with contact paper of all colors, which they cut and used to create collages of the things around them, which they placed on canvases. It was a fun day outdoors, the weather was magnificent, and they just could not stop having so much fun. Thanks Suncokret so much for bringing the materials.

Our dear Anja Blažević was in charge of the camera. Great job Anja!